PJ Tucker, a name that doesn't immediately ring a bell for most people, yet the 35-year-old shooting guard of the Houston Rockets plays an important role on the team. Besides basketball he has another passion, namely sneakers, and especially exclusive sneakers, and in this article we talk about how his interest in them began, his most expensive shoes ever and his road to the NBA.
P.J.
Anthony Leon "P. J." Tucker Jr. was born on 5 May 1985 in Raleigh, North Carolina. PJ's passion for sneakers already started in his younger years, as he said in an interview with ESPN: ‘’I always used to dream of having the newest sneakers, only back then I had a couple of pairs of shoes a year that I had to make do with’’. PJ was picked 35th, in the 2nd round of the 2006 NBA draft, by the Toronto Raptors. There he barely got any playing time and didn't make the starting lineup; after a while the Raptors and PJ decided to part ways and PJ went to play basketball in Europe. There he did get a lot of playing time and developed his talent further. After 6 years abroad he signed a contract with the Phoenix Suns and played in the NBA again, where he showed that he was made for that level.
Exclusive
During his comeback season in the NBA, PJ had already held talks with several shoe brands, such as: Adidas, Nike and Jordan basketball shoes. In the end he decided to go with Nike, and in one of his first games after signing this contract PJ decided to wear no fewer than 4 different shoes in ONE game; of course, they were all Nike basketball shoes. That's just one of the many stunts PJ has pulled in his NBA career; he has also played in the Nike Hyperdunks X Off-White and the Nike Air 1 Fear Of God.
Many players therefore see PJ Tucker as one of the trendsetters who made it normal to play basketball in exclusive shoes. The NBA also thought PJ's choice of basketball shoes was something special and found it so interesting that they created a real, official award for it that players can win at the end of the season, called the Sneaker King Award.
Sneaker King
But PJ doesn't only wear exclusive shoes when playing basketball; off-court he also wears sneakers you won't easily see in everyday life. When PJ was asked what the most money was that he had ever spent on a shoe, the answer was $37,000, which converts to about 31,200 euros; back then he spent it on the Nike Mag, the well-known shoe from the Back To The Future movies. He was then also asked roughly how many sneakers PJ has in his closet, to which he responded quite casually: ‘’About a couple of thousand’’.
